Syria-SDF deal reached as US says partnership with Kurdish-led group 'expired'

The raison d'être for a security partnership between the US and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has “largely expired”, US ambassador Tom Barrack said on Tuesday, as a sweeping compromise to end fighting between Damascus and the Kurdish-led force was announced.

The deal will see Kurdish fighters integrate into the Syrian army as individuals, as opposed to Kurdish-led divisions, which had long been an SDF request in a bid to retain some form of autonomy.

Damascus will also take over “key infrastructure” including border crossings, oil facilities, Islamic State (IS) militant group prisons and detention camps, along with dams - a key asset in the water-scarce region of eastern Syria.

“The original purpose of the SDF as the primary anti-ISIS force on the ground has largely expired, as Damascus is now both willing and positioned to take over security responsibilities,” Barrack wrote on X, using another acronym for IS. 

Barrack’s statement appeared to be timed to coincide with Damascus’s announcement of a four-day ceasefire.

Syrian state media said the SDF had 96 hours to produce a plan to integrate the territory it holds, namely the province of Hasakah, into the Syrian state.

Damascus offered two key concessions to the SDF. As part of the deal, Syrian army forces will not enter Kurdish majority villages or the cities of Hasakah and Qamishli, the group’s headquarters, state media said. 

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s government and the SDF are both US allies.

Sharaa’s government forces wrested swaths of northeast Syria away from the SDF in recent days, bringing key cities like Raqqa and the oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor back under the control of Damascus.

The SDF had governed these region's automously after capturing them from IS. 

Taken together, the statements from Barrack and Syrian state media show an agreement that the SDF and Damascus had reached on Sunday, only to collapse over the last two days amid renewed fighting, was back on track, with full-throated US support. 

'Deal better than semi-autonomy'

The lightning advance of Sharaa's troops exposed the SDF’s weakness and unpopularity, particularly in provinces that have an Arab majority.

However, a US official watching the advance told Middle East Eye there were concerns about the “professionalism” of Sharaa’s troops and the risk of ethnic bloodletting - should they advance into Kurdish towns.

A US official monitoring the fighting said Sharaa was now better placed to seek a political deal on his terms. Talks between the SDF and Damascus on integration have been dragging on for months, with little progress until his army struck.

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Sharaa has won the support of US President Donald Trump and key Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

However, Syria has witnessed sectarian violence against Christians, Alawites and Druze since its Islamist forces toppled former President Bashar al-Assad in late December 2024.

Barrack's statement was framed to reassure the Kurds and their supporters, including many in Washington.

He said the agreement with Damascus “creates a unique window for the Kurds: integration into the new Syrian state offers full citizenship rights…recognition as an integral part of Syria, constitutional protections for Kurdish language and culture…and participation in governance”.

He said that the terms of the deal go “far beyond the semi-autonomy the SDF held amid civil war chaos”.

“This integration, backed by US diplomacy, represents the strongest chance yet for Kurds to secure enduring rights and security within a recognised Syrian nation-state,” he added. 

Barrack's announcement comes after Sharaa issued a decree on 16 January, stating that Kurds are a "basic and authentic" part of the Syrian people and that their cultural, historic, civil, and linguistic rights would be protected under the new Syrian state. He also announced the restoration of citizenship to Kurds who lost it in the 1960s. 

US rejects federalism in Syria

The Syria file in the Trump administration is managed by Barrack, who is the US ambassador to Turkey and the White House’s favoured troubleshooter in the Levant.

Barrack has been mediating between the SDF, Damascus and Ankara, Sharaa’s top foreign backer and longtime foe of the Kurdish-led SDF.

'The original purpose of the SDF as the primary anti-ISIS force on the ground has largely expired'

- US ambassador Tom Barrack

Barrack said the US was “actively facilitating [the] transition” of authority in northeastern Syria to Damascus “rather than prolonging a separate SDF role”. He laid out the most cogent summary of US policy in Syria to date.

He said the US was looking to extricate itself from a long-term military presence on the ground, ensure the defeat of IS remnants and mediate reconciliation between Syria’s various ethnic communities “without endorsing separatism or federalism”.

The latter idea has been under scrutiny for at least a year and is a direct rejection of Israel’s preferences. Syria’s neighbour took advantage of Assad’s downfall to occupy a United Nations buffer zone in southern Syria and launched powerful air strikes that reached the capital, Damascus, last year.

Israel is digging in on Syria’s Mount Hermon, the highest peak in the region. It has also sought to portray itself as a defender of Syria’s Druze minority by backing Druze leader Sheikh Hikmat Salman al-Hajri with arms, experts say.

SDF officials publicly asked for Israeli intervention this week amid fighting with Sharaa’s troops.

Barrack’s statement is likely to reassure Damascus and Turkey that the US is committed to a unitary Syria, as opposed to a state segmented into various provinces controlled by ethnic militias.